In the earliest religions, nature was thought to be alive with a multitude of spirits. The nature spirits were worshipped in order to maintain a harmony with them. Civilization and the advance of technology have inhibited our contact with those elemental energies and spirits. Your dreaming mind may, however, take you on a journey to the realm of nature spirits where you can explore or confront various elements of your unconscious. To go into nature in your dreams is therefore to go into the wilderness of your unconscious where you will encounter primordial instincts. For Freudians, these basic instincts would be sexual, whilst Jung would see natural settings as symbolic of the nurturing but sometimes harsh mother archetype.
Dreams of nature may also reflect your sense of being grounded or connected to Mother Earth. The dream environment may represent your core essence, unaffected by personality traits, your bare nature or something that comes naturally to you and is second nature. Finally, the great outdoors is usually seen as a surrounding that is supposed to bring relaxation and have a calming, nurturing effect on people; your dream may therefore be prompting you to take some time out from your busy routine.
See also: ELEMENTS; FLOWERS; PLACES; TREES; WEATHER.
Natural Features [1]